But AI is rewriting these rules quickly. And now, some of the most unlikely bedfellows: are suddenly forming partnerships that would’ve been unthinkable just a few years ago.
Because when AI becomes the “mother of invention,” old rivalries start to look less important than new revenue streams.
The AI Shopping Wars Have Started and the Alliances Are Getting Weird
AI providers are actively positioning shopping as a major growth frontier for chatbots, while retailers and payments companies scramble to make sure they aren’t left behind.
The result? A growing web of partnerships designed to create new ways for consumers to discover products, evaluate them, and buy, without defaulting to Amazon as the final destination. Old enemies are getting together to dislodge the biggest online shopping destination in the world: Amazon.
The “Big Three” Are Pulling Away and the Gap Might Be Permanent
One of the biggest forces behind these alliances is a simple reality: the AI infrastructure race is obscenely expensive. And there are only a handful of companies with the capital expenditure power to keep accelerating at full speed: Amazon, Google (Alphabet Inc.), and Meta.
They’re building massive AI leads that may become almost insurmountable. In many ways, the gap being created starts to feel like a foregone conclusion: some companies are going to be so far ahead that others can’t catch up.
And that changes the incentive structure for everyone else. Instead of fighting over scraps in the same old way, companies are looking at AI advancements at the “big three” and saying: “We can’t beat them alone. So who can we team up with?”
The Irony: Everyone Wants to Own the Whole Journey, and No One Does
For over a decade, tech giants have chased the dream of owning the entire consumer ecosystem: discovery, community, entertainment, search, commerce, and payment.
But history is full of famous flame-outs.
Even the biggest players have tried (and failed) to build “everything apps” or social platforms that could rival existing consumer habits:
- Amazon has spent years trying to build social-style experiences
- Alphabet tried with Google+
- Meta has launched and killed countless commerce experiments
Everyone wants to control the whole.. But the reality is: no one owns all the pieces.
AI is exposing that truth faster than ever, because AI-powered shopping requires:
- product inventory
- merchant relationships
- payment infrastructure
- consumer trust
- fulfillment expectations
- ad monetization
- and a user experience people actually adopt
No single company has every ingredient. So instead of fighting for control, we’re seeing a new strategy emerge: build alliances that create leverage.
What This Means for Brands: Your Sworn Enemy Might Become Your Next Growth Partner
So where does this leave brands?
In a world where the platforms are changing and the alliances are shifting, brands can’t afford to cling to outdated assumptions like:
- “This retailer will always be our biggest competitor.”
- “This platform will always be a threat.”
- “This partnership would never make sense.”
AI is forcing everyone to rethink the playing field.
And depending on your category, your margin structure, and your growth goals, it might be smart to bring “crazy ideas” to companies you previously saw as rivals, because they may now be your best path to reach customers in new AI-powered environments.
The Bottom Line: Bury The Hatchet and (Maybe) Fill Your Coffers
The brands that win in the next era won’t just optimize harder, they’ll adapt faster. They’ll test new partnerships, explore emerging AI commerce channels, and stay flexible as the new definition of shopping gets rewritten in real time.